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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Democrats Renominate President Roosevelt Drought Again Causes Crop Destruction International Conference Considers Mediterraean Problems. Ey EDWARD W. PICKARD Western Newspaper Union. PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was renominated by the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in a demonstration of f 1 1 r t great popular acclaim. ac-claim. The convention unanimously adopted adopt-ed a strong New Deal platform, and voted the abolition of the historic two-thirds two-thirds rule. The sessions were marked with extreme ex-treme enthusiasm. Party harmony and President a determination to Roosevelt stand miiitantly on the administration's record in the past three years and present a unftcd front in the coming campaign cam-paign characterized the convention. The abolition of the two-thirds rule for the nomination of candidates candi-dates was one of the significant achievements. This rule, which had been in use for more than 100 years, was superseded by the adoption adop-tion of the rules committee's report recommending that at future conventions con-ventions only a bare majority be required for nomination. While some southern and the eastern and western states opposed abrogation, they were reconciled to it by the committee's recommendation that changes be made in the apportionment apportion-ment of delegates. The platform pledged continuance continu-ance of soil conservation, benefit payments to farmers, a sound currency, cur-rency, a balanced budget and a constitutional amendment if necessary, nec-essary, to achieve the party's broad social program. It praised the accomplishments of the New Deal in a preamble, declaring that it planned to continue them in the interest of the nation. The platform's plat-form's keynote was that the Roosevelt Roose-velt administration has put and will keep the nation "on the road to recovery and prosperity." Regarding the Constitution, the platform declared that while the Republican platform proposes to meet national problems by action of the separate states, the Democratic Demo-cratic party recognizes that minimum mini-mum wages, maximum hours, child labor, monopolistic and unfair business busi-ness practices, dust storms, drouth and floods could not be handled by states. It stated: "If these problems' cannot be effectively ef-fectively solved by legislation within with-in the Constitution, we shall seek such clarifying amendments as will assume to the legislatures of the several states and to the congress of the United States each within its proper jurisdiction, the power to enact those laws which the state and federal legislatures within their respective spheres shall find necessary, in order adequately to regulate commerce, protect public health and safety and safeguard economic security. Thus we propose pro-pose to maintain the letter and spirit spir-it of the Constitution." In addition to soil conservation and benefit payments, the farm plank pledged the Democrats to fi-, fi-, nancing share-croppers and tenants j i buying lands; favored commodi-j commodi-j ty loans on farm surpluses and re-' re-' tirement of ten million acres of ; submarginal land from production ' , and rural rehabilitation. : Reiterating the "good neighbor" policy, the foreign relations plank reaffirmed the party's neutrality . 1 program pledged to keep the na-' na-' tion out of foreign entanglements. ' It reasserted the reciprocal farm policy, but demanded "adequate" protection to farmers and manu-I manu-I facturers against unfair foreign J competition. Denouncing monopolies and con-centration con-centration of economic power, the I platform declared that the administration admin-istration would "vigorously and fearlessly enforce the criminal and civil provisions of the existing anti-trust laws." Other planks pledged: Expansion Expan-sion of the social security program; pro-gram; continuance of rural electrification; elec-trification; protection of the rights of labor to bargain collectively; extension of federal housing projects; pro-jects; just treatment of war extension ex-tension of the merit system through classified civil service; freedom of speech, press, radio, religion and assembly; projection of public works projects to aid unemployment: un-employment: opposition to Commu-" Commu-" nism and "the menace of con cealed Fascism. THE specter of drouth stalked in the Northwest. Damage to crops on heat-parched farms in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana Mon-tana caused great concern and recalled re-called the disastrous drouth conditions condi-tions of two years ago. Railroads serving the drouth arts agreed to place emergency freight rates into effect on live stock thipments to other grazing areas. Wheat and corn crops have suffered! severe damage, reports indicate. In Washington, a relief program for the drouth-stricken northwest tates was mapped out by Relief Administrator Harry L. Hopkins. Work relief projects designed to give work at once to 5,000 farmers in the Dakotas and parts of Wyoming Wy-oming and Montana, whose crop lands have been laid waste for the seventh consecutive year, were planned. In the Middle West the fact that June of 1036 has been cooler than the same month two years ago has offset the serious effects of lack of rain. Figures on June rainfall for 1936 and 1934 compiled by Nat C. Murray, crop authority of Chicago, showed that Ohio had 39 per cent of normal this year and 90 per cent in 1934; Minnesota 46 per cent in 1936 and 92 per cent in 1934; Missouri Mis-souri 26 per cent in 1936 and 62 per cent in 1934; and Kansas 37 per cent in 1936 and 65 per cent in 1934. Added to the seriousness of the drouth situation was a plague of grasshoppers that swept over eastern east-ern Nebraska, threatening to destroy de-stroy hundreds of square miles of crops. The swarm was reported to be 100 miles long. In spots the insects in-sects were said to be so numerous that they hid the sun as they passed over valuable farm lands. TVTEETING in Montreaux, Switz-1V1 Switz-1V1 erian(3i an international conference con-ference sought settlement of military mili-tary and naval problems in the Mediterranean. The conference had been called by the powers as a result of Turkey's request to fortify the Dardanelles, which were demilitarized under the Lausanne treaty of 1923. The possible threat of Russia's growing naval strength caused an alignment of the British and Japanese. Jap-anese. Japan announced it was willing to accept any limitation on Japanese warships authorized to enter the Black sea, providing similar sim-ilar restrictions were placed on Russian warships leaving it. Britain Brit-ain was believed to be supporting Japan's position. Russia demanded free westward passage of warships and submarines subma-rines out of the Black sea through the Dardanelles, adding she was unable to see why other powers not bordering on this body of water wa-ter desired unlimited passage to it. Because of her mutual assistance as-sistance pact with the Soviet, France was expected to side with Russia. The possibility of a mutual assistance as-sistance pact in the Mediterranean Mediterrane-an loomed with Britain leading the way and seeking Italy's participation. participa-tion. Such a step would extend a series of such pacts which were concluded between Britain and France, Jugoslavia, Greece and Turkey against Italy at the time economic sanctions were imposed on II Duce. REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM LEMKE of North Dakota announced an-nounced that he would run for the Presidency as candidate of a new political group known as the Union party. Father Fa-ther Charles E. Coughlin, Detroit priest, is the leading lead-ing sponsor of Lem-k Lem-k e ' s c a n d id'a c y . Thomas Charles O'Brien of Boston will be the vice-presidential vice-presidential candidate candi-date on the ticket, Rep. Lemke was announced. Mr. Lemke made public a 15-point 15-point platform embodying demands for refinancing of farm mortgages, old age security, a living wage for all workers, limitation on individual incomes, the establishment of a central cen-tral bank, the issuance by congress of all currency and its regulation of the value of all the money. Plans were made for the new party to hold a national convention some time during August. Mr. I.emke said the Union party has the support of farm unions, labor, la-bor, t'p.2 National Union for Social Jusiice e. '.ablished by Father Coughlin, Cough-lin, the Tovnsend old age pension movei, -. :.t md "all other liberals v.t.u h--.v Leon driven from the old parlies." Mr. Lemke was co-author with Senator Lynn J. Frazier of North Dakota of a 53.000,000,000 farm mortgage refinancing bill defeated in the house of representatives. ARTHUR W. CUTTEN, who achieved spectacular wealth as a grain trader, died of a heart attack in his home in Chicago. He was sixty-five years old. An exponent of individualism, Mr. Cutlen went his way alone in the ' grain market, playing his "hunches" against the field. In 1924, he made a profit estimated at between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 in a corner on the corn market. He repeated his success with a coup in the wheat market the following year. With a group of associates, he entered the stock market in 1928 and during the boom months made millions of dollars. THE death of Bernhard W. von Buelow, secretary of state for foreign affairs in the Hitler cabinet, removed one of the most skilled of Europe's diplomats. Von Buelow, who was fifty-one, was an expert on the League of Nations and gave his country valuable counsel when Germany began to consider rejoining rejoin-ing the league. He was noted as a studious and hard-working official, with a vast amount of detailed information in-formation always readily available. A "blueblood" of the German nobility, the diplomat was a nephew of the late Prince Bernhard von Buelow, imperial chancellor. He was one of the first of the German nobles to associate himself with the republican regime after the collapse col-lapse of the empire in 1918. Although Al-though different in background from Hitler, he nevertheless enjoyed en-joyed the chancellor's confidence. In diplomatic circles it was regarded re-garded as likely that Dr. Hans Dieckhoff, chief of the political department de-partment of the foreign office, will succeed Buelow as secretary of state. In Russia, Maxim Gorky, early foe of the czars who become a hero of the Soviet regime and its outstanding out-standing writer, died of influenza at the age of sixty-eight. Although not a member of the Communist party, Gorky had a preeminent position po-sition in Soviet life and was a former for-mer member of the central executive execu-tive committee. Moscow honored him with a public funeral and interment in-terment in the Kremlin in a niche facing Lenin's tomb. Under the czars, Gorky was jailed on many occasions for his inflammatory inflam-matory writings. His revolutionary attitude was expressed in his pen name. Maxim Gorky means "The Bitter One" in Russian. The author was considered Soviet Russia's greatest propagandist. His real name was Alexis Maximovitch Pyeshkov. FOLLOWING the lead of Great Britain, the United States formally for-mally revoked all sanctions imposed against Italy duirng the recent Italo-Ethiopian conflict. con-flict. A proclamation proclama-tion by President Roosevelt declared all previous communications com-munications dealing with the sale of munitions of war, loans and travel by Americans on Italian Ital-ian ships was revoked. if Although the sanctions were Stanley against both Italy Baldwin and Ethiopia, in practical application applica-tion they were used only against Italy, since the United States did not supply the African nation with any war materials and the empire of Haile Selassie had no ships of its own. The French cabinet agreed to abide by any action which the League of Nations may take in cancelling can-celling sanctions against Italy. The British government's decision deci-sion to abandon sanctions was defended de-fended in an address by Prime Minister Min-ister Baldwin as the only alternative alterna-tive which would prevent a suicidal war plunging western civilization into "barbai'ous anarchy." Baldwin asserted: "We think it is right to drop sanctions sanc-tions because they are useless and ineffective. "There is only one way to alter the course of events as they have thus far taken place. That is by going go-ing to war. "I do not know a single nation in Europe that is prepared for that. I would not cast my vote for that course of action." THE Seventy-fourth congress adjourned ad-journed after a session lasting five and a half months during which it appropriated nearly $10,000,000,-"000 $10,000,000,-"000 and was faced by some unexpected unex-pected legislative complications. In the closing hours the emergency emer-gency tax bill which is expected to produce $800,000,000 in revenue was passed. Supreme court invalidation of the AAA and Guffey coal bills and the passage of the cash soldiers' sol-diers' bonus over the President's veto upset the budget plans and made such a bill necessary. Although it was passed by the house, the amended Guffey coal bill designed to remove the objections of the Supreme court failed of passage pas-sage in the senate. Similarly, the Wagner slum nousing bill, which had passed the senate, failed in the house. Larger than normal appropriations appropria-tions for governmental activities were passed. The bonus, farm payments, pay-ments, relief and the greatest national na-tional defense program in peace time history helped swell the total. Funds for continuing the present relief program were voted; the public works revolving fund was amended to permit more heavy construction con-struction projects. Invalidation of the AAA brought a revised and expanded, soil conservation con-servation and domestic allotment act; the rural electrification administration admin-istration and electric farm and home authority were both placed on a permnaent basis; the Commodity Credit corporation was expanded; two flood control bills were passed. Labor received attention through the Walsh-Healy bill dealing with working conditions on government contracts. A compromise ship subsidy sub-sidy bill was rushed through in the closing hours. Financial legislation included expansion of the jurisdiction jurisdic-tion of SEC. Important among business busi-ness legislation was the Patman bill amending the Clayton anti-trust act regarding price discrimination. j |